Charissa Thompson has spent years turning her off-seasons into something most NFL broadcasters wouldn’t think to build: a working animal sanctuary. On a new Instagram Story, the FOX Sports and Amazon Prime Video host opened up about the grief that quietly started the whole thing.
Posting a photo of two of her current rescue dogs riding in the car together, Thompson got personal about two pets she lost before Ruby Ranch ever existed.
“When I lost Willis and Daisy I felt so guilty about adopting other dogs,” Thompson wrote. “But what I have realized is without them, @rubyranchlife wouldn’t exist, and the best way to honor them is to continue saving more animals.”
Credits: Instagram/@charissajthompson
It’s a simple line, but it reframes everything Thompson has built since losing them. Ruby Ranch is a 75-acre property in Central California that Thompson bought in 2021. It became her offseason home, but the place has grown into much more than that. There are six cattle, four horses, two sheep, a pig, dozens of chickens, several peacocks, and rescued dogs and cats. And the whole thing can be traced back to one surprisingly simple source: Yellowstone.
“The origin story behind this is I just always loved animals,” Thompson told the New York Post. “But then I started watching Yellowstone and I was like, ‘Oh my god, ranches are cool!'”
The name itself has a little Wizard of Oz meaning behind it. Thompson named Ruby Ranch after Dorothy’s ruby slippers, tying it to the movie’s famous idea that there is no place like home.
What began as inspiration from a streaming series eventually turned into something closer to a calling. Thompson has described the pull of rescuing animals in terms that sound almost involuntary at this point.
“It’s definitely a passion project,” she said. “The more animals I save, I want to save more. It’s addicting. I’ll take the animal cast off on the side of the road, or the random sheep that were going to be sold because they sold the barn next to mine. Anyways, I just feel like it’s my rent on earth is to give back.”
That mindset shows up constantly on the Ruby Ranch Instagram account, run alongside her boyfriend, Steven Cundari, which has built a following of tens of thousands watching the two take in strays and farm animals with nowhere else to go. Past residents have included a dog named Pilot, now buried near the property’s pond, alongside current dogs Simba, Nala, Ginger, and Oz.
The ranch has since taken on a life of its own. Thompson has a general store, boathouse, saloon and guest cottage on the property, along with merchandise that helps pay for the animals’ care. She also has two full-time employees helping run the ranch when football takes her away.
The ranch gives Thompson a side of life that looks nothing like her football career. During the season, her days revolve around television, cameras, and studio lights. At Ruby Ranch, she is surrounded by animals and has the space to slow down, something she has said brings a sense of balance to her life.
“As cheesy as it sounds, it fulfills me,” Thompson said. “It really balances the scale of the world I live in, which is great, TV, lights, and makeup.”
During the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, Thompson used her social media following to help animals caught up in the disaster. She asked followers to reach out if they knew of animals that needed temporary homes, showing that her interest in animal rescue was not limited to the animals already living on her property.
Losing Willis and Daisy had made Thompson hesitant to adopt again. But she now sees the ranch differently. The animals she brings there have become part of the way she keeps their memory alive.